“We heard he’s an Unholy Trio fan,” Gus said. “This operation will be what Johnny needs to get his YouTube channel out ranking the cat videos again.”
“Yes, I was overcome by a kitten that chased its own tail for five minutes straight,” Johnny admitted. “It was very embarrassing.”
“Enough.” Cala stood amidst loud amusement. “Play ‘House of the Rising Sun’, Muerto. Let’s dance again, Johnny.”
Johnny stood. He grasped Cala’s hands while Nick sipped his iced Beam brother. “We escaped the hell of Islam. We have so much now with our child on the way. I pray we will be able to help the City of Hope.”
“We will, my husband. Muerto will see to it as he has provided our escape from hell.”
Nick played a long ranging interlude of monumental jazzed proportions to begin ‘House of the Rising Sun’, with Gus and Tina joining with Johnny and Cala. Sonny hesitantly reached for Jean’s hand, dancing with her as prescribed by Rachel with only hands touching. She smiled at her husband and made Jian continue his dance lesson.
Nick met her gaze as he played, wondering if somewhere in her head she wasn’t thinking about Sonny’s parents. He lost his train of thought when Deke bumped against him. It was all he could do to continue with the song after noticing Deke was swinging with the music. I shouldn’t have given him that second beer.
Nick’s security system warning kicked in as he entered into his second Barry White song. After glancing at his balcony monitor, Nick hurried downstairs with .45 caliber silenced Colt in hand he had grabbed from his balcony hutch. Reaper/Dark Dragon/Unholy Trio at his back, also held weapons. A woman and her two kids stood at his doorstep. They were pre-kindergarten age. Nick swept by her, looking for targets, as his friends ushered her inside. His eyes narrowed, honed on target, decades of training, instinct, and survival kicking in as the big sedan climbed the hill toward his house. Waiting until it leveled out onto his street, Nick fired a round through the driver’s head.
As the sedan meandered into the curb, Nick shot everyone in the car, rushing at it, picking his targets, and zeroing in on where he needed to hit them. The adrenaline flow cascading through his body erased his Beam buzz, and settled him into war zone mode. Johnny, Gus and Jian encircled the car, listening unaffected by the screams and cries inside. Nick ran around to the driver’s side, moved the console shift into park, and pulled the dead driver out into the street. He reached in, shut off the engine, and methodically pulled the key from the ignition. Nick dragged the corpse to the trunk, opened it, and dead lifted the body inside.
Nick returned to the passengers with a big grin. “Hello there. Who wants to live? I need information. Anyone not giving me what I need gets a bullet in the head.”
“I…I’m bad hurt,” a tattooed gangbanger in the back cried out, blood frothing at his mouth from a lung shot.
Nick shot him through the head. “Dr. Muerto is in. Can I help anyone else who would like to be pain free immediately?”
“You can’t just… execute us!”
Nick executed him immediately. “Another poor hurting soul found hell. Speak helpfully or Dr. Muerto will help you into the next dimension.”
A face tattooed mobster writhing on the backseat next to the two corpses spoke in halting but accurate tone. He had been the last shot by Nick in the belly. “Anything! What do you want!”
“That’s more like it. A friend of mine’s family just arrived at my doorstep. I know you bunch of MS-13 gangbanging idiots know why. Tell me fast. I can keep you in pain for a week with that belly wound, asshole.”
The man with the top part of his right shoulder shot to pieces groaned while struggling to contain the blood oozing in a stream down his chest. “We…we got hired to find and kill… Nick McCarty! We took Dickerson tonight… on the street… by his house… making noise… so his wife would look and see. She led us to you.”
Nick smiled. The kill button had been pushed. The Terminator began to finish what he had started without the solution. A hand reached his shoulder, tentatively pulling on it.
“We need to know where Neil is, Muerto,” Cala pleaded. She had seen the face of death before. Knowing the Beam led to a gap in perception, controlling the killing and maiming part of Nick’s head, she acted.
Nick’s finger pad eased away from the trigger. He took a deep breath. “Thanks, Reaper. You didn’t drink tonight, did you?”
“No, Muerto… I am with child. I will drive to our place in the Valley.”
“No time, Reaper. Speak! Where is Neil Dickerson?” Nick made the razor-sharp stiletto appear as if by magic. “Tell me now or Dr. Muerto starts surgery!”
The man with the belly wound gasped out the address, pleading for something to block the pain. Nick shot him in the head, along with the shoulder wounded man. Nick dragged them to the trunk, depositing them with Gus, Johnny, and Jian’s help. The cargo compartment on the Cadillac was huge. They stuffed the bodies at odd broken angles to make them fit before closing the trunk.
“I’ll get some blankets for the ride,” Nick said. “You drive, Reaper. We’ll settle this tonight, no matter what.”
“Yes, Muerto.”
“We’re good to go, Nick,” Gus said, as he followed Nick to the door of the house.
“I know, Gus.” Rachel met Nick with a tarp in hand. She heard Nick and found a better cover. Neil’s wife and kids sat on the couch in their living room. Jean and Sonny stood in front of them, knives in hand.
“Stand down, kids. Lock up behind us when I leave.” Nick ran to enter the bottom floor safe-room. He retrieved MP5 submachine guns, two ET-MP grenades, and Kevlar vests, stuffing them all into his equipment bag. Nick hugged Rachel before retrieving his satellite laptop from the entryway. “Set the alarms, keep Deke nearby, and get your new Glock out. Stay away from the windows until I sort this out, babe.”
Rachel kissed him. “I will.”
“Nick! Please bring Neil home!”
Nick glanced at Neil’s wife and kids. “I will, Linda, if it’s humanly possible.”
With Gus’s help, Nick spread the tarp over the seats. He smoothed down the part covering the front flooring so it did not impede Cala’s driving, but still covered the blood. Gus, Johnny and Jian tamped down the tarp between the seats. Nick passed the equipment bag over the seat. As they drove toward their destination, all of them glanced around, looking for neighbors taking notice.
“I used to think you keeping a weapon with silencer in multiple parts of your house was overkill,” Gus said. “Silly me. Do you have a plan?”
“I’m working on it, Payaso. Get the Kevlar on. Check your weapons. Insert your earwigs. Cala will keep us on network. We get Neil back. No prisoners.” Nick flitted over images of the address given to him. “There’s a fenced off property across from them with trees and bushes partially hiding the short turnoff there. We’ll park in the turn out opposite the house. I’ll go find Neil first. I’m hoping they haven’t been here long enough to have dogs. If they do have dogs, my plan changes. Pass me the grenades, Payaso. I’ll stick with my Colt. Dig out my extra magazines too.”
When they arrived at the street, Plumas Road in Seaside, Cala turned off the headlights, easing the Cadillac into the turnoff Nick mentioned. Before getting out of the Cadillac, Nick checked his network connection. He pointed down the road the way they had come.
“I’ll head that way, circle back, and slip along the wide driveway to the rear of the house. If I find Neil, I will make a final assessment then. We’re in luck. It’s on a hill with unfenced front access. The house faces away from us. The brush on the hill should make it nearly impossible to see my approach from the house unless someone actually comes out to check.”
Nick slipped quickly from the Cadillac, staying crouched next to it for a moment while watching the dimly lit house across the street. Nothing stirred there. Nick hurried along the underbrush for fifty yards, crossed the street, and stopped before the driveway entrance. He instead trekked upward over the rough br
ush, where a bare path had been worn in the sloping terrain leading to the house. Nick paused before he became visible over the slope, taking out his night-vision ocular. He scanned the grounds on the left side of the house with garage under it. Nothing prevented access to the house rear grounds. In one way, the wild brush helped conceal his approach, but because of the noise factor, Nick stayed at the edge of the cement driveway.
Hurrying to the under-the-house attached garage’s side, Nick slipped alongside the garage wall to the rear. With his night-vision ocular, he scanned the uncut rear tangled brush lawn. No sign of anyone, either person or animal, showed during his area scan. The front windows, where a porch and stairway access enabled entrance, had been closed off by heavy blinds. Nick checked the darkened windows of the garage. Although drape covered, he could see the inside through the gap with his ocular. A body, tied and gagged, was anchored tightly with a chain to the middle garage support beam. Nick took the screen out of each window, his gloved hands feeling for any gap between the frame and window. The rearmost window slid open sideways, not having been locked into position.
Uncaring now who heard what, Nick scrambled over the window frame, keeping as silent as possible. His first priority shifted to getting between the body and the entrance into the house from the garage. Nick turned the body so he could look into the person’s face. Neil’s groggy, half lidded stare widened slightly with recognition. Nick made shushing gestures at Neil while cutting away his bonds.
“I have Neil,” Nick whispered into the network. “Do you read?”
“Loud and clear, Muerto,” Gus said.
“Good. I’m sure you saw me approach the house. Go up the same path to the side of the garage. Kabong watches with MP5 while I hand Neil to you and Dragon Breath, Gus. Take him to the car, while Reaper keeps watch on the house. She can keep Neil steady in the car while we finish this.”
“You shall pay for insulting Dark Dragon, Muerto!”
Nick grinned, carrying Neil with arm draped over his shoulder, to the opened garage window. He never lost line of sight with the house entrance. His hand holding the silenced Colt never moved from the door. Gus and Jian reached in to help Nick ease Neil through the opening noiselessly. Without a word, Gus and Jian hurried Neil down to the Cadillac, where Cala waited at the rear door away from the house. She opened it and Gus helped Neil inside.
Johnny kept watch with the MP5 at the ready until his friends returned. The three then waited at the ready in front of the garage near the stairwell to the porch.
“We’re in position, Muerto,” Gus said.
“The only reason I don’t blow the house up right now is they may have other hostages. Plus, I want to learn whose idea this was. We cleaned these suckers out. No way should the damn government have allowed any importation of more, so we also need to find out how they got in the country. The idiots are wearing labels across their faces. How hard can it be to round these pricks up?”
“A discussion for another time,” Gus replied.
“Right you are. Stay put. I’ll see how close I can get to these guys.”
Nick slowly turned the knob on the entryway door to the house, while standing clear of the door on the landing. It opened as he gently applied pressure. He could hear a TV blaring inside which he knew would cover any noise the door made. Automatic weapons fire blew the center of the door apart. The moment the weapon stopped, Nick put his Colt through the hole in the door and fired three shots into the stomach of the man aiming an AK47 at the door. He fell screaming to the floor, hands clutching his spilling entrails. Nick shot him in the head.
“Hold guys. I’m good. Get anyone running out the front. Wound if possible.”
“Understood,” Gus acknowledged.
Nick waited by the door, only partially exposed by the door jamb. He sighted through the blown-out hole. Two more gang-members ran around the corner toward him, both with hand weapons. Nick shot them both in the shoulder of their shooting arms. He heard shots at the front before a huge guy rounded the corner of the bedroom at the house’s rear most part of the hallway. Nick shot him in both knees. The knife he rushed down the hallway with clattered to the floor. Nick inspected it, and pocketed it. He restrained the big guy at ankles and wrists.
“If they ran out the front, guys, c’mon in. I’m working the back.”
“Understood. Two down in front,” Gus said. “We’ll drag them in. They’re both living, but unhappy.”
“I’m checking the bedrooms now,” Nick replied. “Hold in position, ready for anything at your end. Wait one.”
Nick kicked the now screaming one with bad knees in the head, silencing him. “Sorry. I was having trouble concentrating. I’ll clear the bedrooms and be back with you in a few minutes.”
Nick moved from shabby bedroom to shabby bedroom. They were all empty, until he reached the one the big guy attacked him from. A girl in her early teens lay tied to the bedframe, her eyes only blinking slightly as she saw Nick enter the room. He cleared the room with care, only then lowering his Colt.
“Please! Please… don’t kill me,” the girl pleaded.
Nick freed her while making shushing sounds. “No one will hurt you. You're a bit of an inconvenience, but we’ll get you back to your family somehow. I’ll tell you who I am, but my solution to your problem won’t be part of strict law enforcement. I will make sure you get back where you belong, but the people here in this house who took you won’t be going to trial.”
A grim aspect settled over the girl’s features. “I understand. If…if I can get home… I don’t want to know who you are. I will deal… thank you.”
“No thanks necessary. C’mon, we have a few unpleasant things to do in here. I will take you to my associate, Cala. She’ll take excellent care of you until we finish in here, okay?”
The girl hugged him.
Nick held her for a moment and then patted her shoulder. “You need to put some clothes on first though.”
Nick turned around. “What’s your name?”
“Dierdre Fulmington. I…I did something really stupid. I went to a Rave down in LA. The next thing I knew… I was tied to this bed.” Dierdre collapsed on the bed, sobbing with gut wrenching cries of anguish.
Nick glanced back to make sure she had clothes on. Once he noted she had on a blouse and jeans, he turned to comfort her, thinking of Jean, who was probably only a few years younger. He gripped her shoulders. “No time for that right now, Dierdre. No one will ever know what happened here. My crew will say nothing and every person who laid a hand on you will be dead.”
The girl nodded, shuddered, and turned to continue putting on her footwear. Nick escorted her by the dead and soon to be dead. His crew smiled at the young Dierdre, mouthing all the right things. Nick knew she would either succumb to self-pity and the victim syndrome so popular today, or get ready to rumble. As he walked her over to the waiting Cadillac, Nick talked to her gently about the future.
“No one listens to me anyway, but let me give you a piece of advice, kid. Put this all behind you in a locked part of your mind. Draw on it only when you are tempted to do something else foolish or deadly. We all make bad errors in judgement. When given a second chance with real life logic, what we do with the knowledge makes all the difference in the world. I know just how I’ll cover for you on this. How much or how little you say after that will be up to you, okay?”
“I can handle it. Who…who are you guys. That MS-13 gang… they’re the most terrifying people… I’d ever seen. They didn’t have a prayer against you.”
“We’re the people they call when all else fails. When we are asked to intervene, we don’t take bad guys to court. We make sure they never do bad things again.”
Dierdre smiled as Cala left the Cadillac to greet her. “I can handle that.”
Nick patted her shoulder. “I’ll get one of my crew to go with Cala to take you to my house with my police lieutenant friend. Once my business is finished, I’ll take you home. My wife will help you get clea
ned up and find some clothes for you.”
“Sure… that would be great.”
“I’m Cala.” Dierdre shook hands with Cala. “Ride in the front with me.”
“I’ll get Johnny to ride with you and drop Neil and Dierdre at my house. Bring my Ford and the Cadillac back.”
“Yes, Muerto. You’ll wait for us, right? No neighbors stuck their noses out. They must know the MS-13 boys like to rock and roll. Tonight, they got rolled. Tell Johnny to get a move on. I want to be at the interrogation.”
Nick grinned. “I see your being pregnant hasn’t mellowed you out much, Reaper.”
“Heh…heh… not hardly.”
* * *
“Here’s the deal guys,” Nick stated, walking amongst the tethered MS-13 gang. “We’re not here to rehabilitate you, deport you, or hear your views on life. I’m Dr. Muerto. My associates are Dr. Payaso, Kabong, Dark Dragon, and Reaper. I brought a scalpel and this big bottle of Clorox that was under the sink. Answer my questions and you all get to go into the afterlife without much pain. Now, let’s start off with my first-”
“I ain’t tellin’ you shit,” one of the men who Gus, Johnny and Jian captured stated while spitting on the floor.
“We have a volunteer already! That’s great. I’m sure your buddies will learn by your example. Gag him, Payaso.”
After being gagged and restrained more tightly in a chair, Nick tore away the man’s clothing, baring his chest, belly, and upper groin area. With practiced ease, Nick sliced him from sternum to groin deep enough to bulge the intestines. Johnny poured Clorox over the visible intestines. Gus anchored the chair with Nick’s help while the man bucked in place, squealing through his gag until he passed out. The begging and pleading started immediately from the man’s cohorts. Nick shushed them.
Rule of Nightmare Page 8